Sen. Franken Resigns Amid Multiple Harassment Allegations

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/AP) — Following weeks of accusations made against him, Sen. Al Franken has announced he is stepping down at the end of the year.

“I am proud that during my time the Senate I have used my power to be a champion of women and that I have earned a reputation as someone who respects the women I work alongside every day. I know there’s been a very different picture of me painted over the last few weeks, but I know who I really am,” Franken said on the U.S. Senate floor Thursday morning.

“Serving in the United States Senate has been a great honor of my life. I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a Senator, nothing, has brought this honor on this institution and I am confident that the ethics committee would agree. Nevertheless today I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate,” Franken added. “Even today, on the worst political day of my life, I feel like it’s all been worth it.”

On Wednesday, more than a dozen Democrats in the U.S. Senate all called on Franken to resign, including neighboring Wisconsin’s Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wrote on Facebook that while Franken is entitled to have the Ethics Committee conclude its review, “I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn’t acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve.”

Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Patty Murray of Washington state and Claire McCaskill of Missouri also joined those pressing for Franken to quit, among others.

“I of all people am aware that there is some irony that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape that his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,” Franken said. “Over the last few weeks a number of women have come forward to talk about how they felt my actions affected them. I was shocked, I was upset. But in responding to their claims, I also wanted to be respectful of that broader conversation, because all women deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously. I think that was the right thing to do. I also think it gave some people the false impression that I was admitting to doing things that in fact I hadn’t done. Some of the allegations against me are simply not true, others I remember very differently.”

Sources tell WCCO’s Pat Kessler that Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, Tina Smith, leads the list of potential Franken replacements until Minnesotans elect a replacement in 2018. That replacement would serve until 2020, when Franken was due for re-election.

Earlier on Wednesday, another woman came forward in Politico with allegations against Franken. The publication is withholding the name of the former congressional staffer who says Franken tried to kiss her in 2006.

Franken released a statement almost in conjunction with the release of the report saying he categorically denies this incident happened, which was a bit of a change from what he has said in the other instances.

This latest accuser was a Democratic congress member’s staffer in 2006 when she says Franken tried to kiss her when the two were alone and when she ducked he said “it’s my right as an entertainer.”

“I don’t want to be in the position of deciding whether to tell this story but I’m not the person who put me in that position. He did that,” the woman said. “I think for this moment in time to lead to meaningful change there has to be more than ‘I’m ashamed but I remember things differently’ accounting.”

Franken responded: “This allegation is categorically not true and the idea that I would claim this as my right as an entertainer is preposterous. I look forward to fully cooperating with the ongoing ethics committee investigation.”

The accusations began with Leeann Tweeden, who in mid-November said Franken groped her while she slept and forcibly kissed her during a skit rehearsal. Since then, women have come forward alleging Franken inappropriately touched them on the back side during photos.

Apparently in Franken’s mind, there’s no difference between what he DID and what President Trump boasted that he COULD’VE DONE!
Sadly, apparently no one in the lamestream news media knows the difference, either.

Senator Franken swore to uphold the constitution, which means due process rights, the right to face accusers directly in a court of law, and the whole concept of being innocent until properly convicted of a crime by a jury of your peers.

Senator Franken. You are a member of the least respected profession because of one consisten lacking by most of your ilk. You think you get to define your “enemy”. You only get to define you. Sad you chose handsy creepy can tell the fame groupies from prudes not happy to just say no. You do not deserve to have your career destroyed because of your creepy flirtations and bad jokes. You deserve to see your career rerouted because the holier than thou act is boring AND hypocritical coming from you. Now go out and find those fame @#$##@#, there are plenty of them that are happy to let you grab them in the $%&^%&$.

Great speech from an odious person. Besides how he abused women BEFORE being a Senator, he has been a bully as a Senator against Whites, Men, Christians, gun-owners, etc.
And remember how he stole that seat to begin with: suspicious ballots found in the trunk of a car that turned him from a loser (he still is!) to someone declared the winner by less than 100 votes.
Good riddance to bad rubbish!

No Al, you don’t know who you are. We do though. You’re a NARC as in narcissistic personality disorder, and NARCs never admit they have that mental health issue. I’d say go get help but NARCs can’t be helped. You’re broken and you’re gonna stay that way. You and you alone turned your life into a cesspool. Get on with your life and get out of ours. Champion of Women?? I don’t think so. How is it that you are “sorry” for acts you claim not to have done? You state that as you move forward you will be “enormously sensitive.” Try to be less of a liar as well.

I don’t care for Franken or his politics but this should have been decided by the Minnesota electorate and/or the Senate Ethics Committee not the court of public opinion. As big a schmuck as Franken is he deserved due process and should not have resigned. There is a feeling of the hysteria and bloodletting in this not seen since the French Revolution. I think the country needs to take a breath and reflect just a little before the guillotine is broken out of mothballs.

It’s really hard to listen to anyone from the party that made Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton “untouchable gods” criticize ANYONE else about abusing women. Hillary herself abused women who her husband had already abused; and these people STILL claim that she should be President.

Intellectual consistency has not been a part of the Democrat platform for decades.

I hope everyone sees through this. It’s not like the Democrats have all of a sudden had a come to Jesus moment. Franken and Conyers are both in democrat safe districts and were sacrificed so, the establishment can go after President Trump. It’s for political benefit only. They will go after Trump with this in the 2020 election, where they couldn’t in 2016 because of Hillary’s meal ticket Bill Clinton was the worst when it came to sexual harassment.

1- Billy stated that they knew Trump was blowing hot air as the showman and exaggerator that he is.

2- Even if it was true Trump said “They Let You Do It” which insinuates consent. Consent is not sexual assault. Franken doesn’t seem to know the difference (in word and deed).

3- Trump denies it and is innocent until proven guilty. Now there are serious questions about ‘proof’ in Roy Moore’s accusations as well (ink and signature). There is no question at all about the picture of Senator Grope, which only proves Franken’s intelligence level.

I’ve noticed that these democrats being accused have a few things in common. One, they are all just horrible people aside from the sex stuff. Franken is a great example. Second, their behavior has never changed. They’ve always been predators.

Moore on the other hand , if you believe the accusers, only had one period of his life when he did this, which is not consistent with the behavior of a predator. To me that’s proof of Moore’s innocence.

I am a Trump supporter, but I believe in fair play. I also believe in due process. He said he was innocent of some charges. He needs to fight those charges, not roll over like some political correct liberal weiner.

Franken has ADMITTED to certain acts of sexual impropriety (at least some of them). Yet, Franken isn’t willing to extend such due process toward those on the opposite side of the political aisle in Washington (e.g., President Trump, Roy Moore, etc.) where the accusations are just that — unproven.

The Democrats are going to try to differentiate themselves from the Republicans by saying they’re the party of accountability when it comes to sexual harassment. It won’t work simply for the fact that most of the sexual abusers are democrats. This party aided and abetted people like Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein for decades. Nice try, but come talk to us in 10 years when you don’t have to account for your obviously double standards.

Franken did not resign. He said he plans to resign. If Moore is elected next week he could use that as an excuse to change his mind. After all he is a champion of women’s rights and those skanks lied about him.

Wasn’t Conyers also a champion of women? An Icon Pelosi called him? Hard for Democrats to take the moral high road with Bill Clinton and criticize people like Moore who certainly needs to be condemned.